Attention on BHA’s wind farm

The new community wind farm developed by Berwickshire Housing Association and its partners Community Energy Scotland is certainly attracting attention.

As well as ‘The Fisherman Three’ wind farm near Cockburnspath being short-listed in the ‘Best Community Project’ category of the Scottish Green Energy Awards, run by Scottish Renewables, it is also in the running for the ‘Margaret Blackwood Award for Excellence in Housing Innovation’, part of the Excellence Awards, run by the Chartered Institute of Housing.

The Fisherman Three is the first wind farm in the UK to have been developed by a housing association as a means of funding new homes for social rental. By supplying energy to the National Grid, it will create revenue for BHA of around £20 million over the next 25 years – enough to allow them to build 500 new homes.

BHA’s chief executive Helen Forsyth said: “Not only will the wind farm power homes and provide us with a steady source of income to allow us to build much-needed new homes, it will also provide an initial community benefit payment of £37,500 per year. This will be given to the communities closest to the wind farm, to be spent on whatever they identify as their priorities.

“The wind farm has already been highly commended in the British Renewable Energy Awards earlier this year. It’s great to be short-listed in two such prestigious awards.”